Health care providers often ask me, “What do effective partnerships with community-based organizations look like?” Excellent question. It shows an affinity for collaboration and an intention to get it right. The answer, however, is that there is no one-size-fits-all model or design, and that each cross-sector partnership should be as unique as the specific, often complex, challenge it aims to address.

Of course, that’s not to say you can’t draw inspiration from others and gain insight from real-world examples.

So if you’ve been searching for examples of successful cross-sector partnerships, we invite you to look to the ten honorees from our client The SCAN Foundation’s 2017 Innovation in Health Care Award program that recognizes partnerships that exhibit meaningful achievements and notable outcomes. You can read each one individually on SCAN’s site (links below) or hit the Download button at the top of this post to get all ten at once.

Read about each honoree, their partnership structures and models, and the lessons learned. Get an inside look at how these progressive health-focused organizations are designing and implementing partnerships to meet their goals. When your goals are about improving health outcomes for your community, cross-sector partnerships can be key to seeing the results you hope for.

We hope these stories leave you feeling inspired to take action.

Turning Ideas into Action:

As you each read these 10 profiles of successful cross-sector partnerships, as yourself:

  • How could I leverage a similar structure?
  • How might a version of this model work for us?
  • What high potential partnership opportunities am I overlooking?
  • How can effective design and implementation of cross-sector partnerships help us achieve more, better?